HRC Blog

New Book Helps Religous Communities Affirm Bisexual People

The “B” in LGBT is too rarely discussed, and particularly not discussed in religious circles. The Religious Institute, headed by Debra Hafner, is doing its part to change that through its recent publication, Bisexuality: Making Visible the Invisible in Faith Communities, written by Hafner and Marie Alford-Harkey.

This book is the first of its kind in over a decade written to help the religion world and LGBT communities affirm bisexual people. Lack of knowledge and misinformation too often leads to avoidance of and even worse—dismissing of bisexual people as non-existent or confused. Silencing and dismissing of bisexual people does real harm.

Contributors to this publication spoke on a teleconference call, on June 25, and addressed questions like: What happens when a congregant comes to his minister for pastoral counseling because, after dating women all his life, he fell in love with another man? What happens when a man everyone believes to be gay comes to an LGBT event holding hands with a woman?

The teleconference speakers addressed the discrimination, marginalization, and invisibility that bisexual people experience in society, in LGBT communities, and in faith communities. They called on faith leaders to break the silence about bisexuality, dispel the myths and learn the facts about bisexual people and stop the harm.

Copies of the publication are $15.00 each, an can be ordered from The Religious Institute by clicking here.